Children developed externalising behaviour

children developed externalising behaviour Past studies examined the relationship between various stressors, including parental conflict, and either the SNS or the PNS separately. This new study looked at the joint effect on both systems at the same time.

It found that children developed externalising behaviour in response to parental conflict if the PNS and SNS were simultaneously switched on. If the "fight or flight" responses were going full blast with the "rest and digest" doing the same, the child was liable to be reported by parents and teachers as prone to externalising.

This was because the SNS system seems to override the PNS; the child becoming angry, even chaotically furious, and getting involved in fights with parents, who then start using extreme measures to control the child, up to and including hitting. The pattern now established, the child takes it to school.